An Explanation of Ranks...

Rene had delivered the last piece of mailinto the mailbox of the last point of call on his route.

He finished in an hour what would normally take five. "That went much faster than I thought it would. I guess that means I have those rank 20 stats?"

[Rank 20 is the measure of a normal evolved human. You are the only host for the evolved Xerys System. As such you have received the maximum rank possible for a human without changing your appearance. You must be able to pass for a normal member of your species without drawing attention to yourself. As the host, you are rank 50.]

"Rank 50! Are you pulling my chain?" Rene quickly checked the chart and came to a startling conclusion. "Rank 50 means I can lift over 10 metric tons. How is this possible? Won't my bones snap if I put that much stress on my body?" Rene was full of questions. He couldn't ask them fast enough. Questions like how fast am I? Am I faster than a speeding car? How tough is tough? Am I bulletproof? Bombproof?

Rene noticed that his agility and balance must have increased as well. He was walking at a very fast pace on a sheet of ice covered sidewalk. In fact, most of his route was like that. Most sidewalks in Ottawa have layers on top of layers of ice built up over the last month.

The evolved Xerys System explained everything to Rene in fine detail as he entered his Canada Post transit and turned it on. He dialed the climate control console to max heat out of habit.

"Is there anyone stronger than me? I mean if I am three times stronger than most humans?"

[Yes. There are those who have developed exotic abilities. I have enhanced your durability to the point where you can survive most small arms fire used by the human race. However, there is a surprising number of humans who were in the vicinity of my first activation that has developed extreme exotic abilities rarely seen on such a massive scale in one planet in this galaxy.]

"Then these exotic abilities exit elsewhere in the galaxy? What kind of abilities are there?" Rene paused as he thought of something important that he should have taken care of when all this craziness began. "Xerys are you doing something to me? I mean I just thought about my family. My wife and my son. I should have called them as soon as I woke up after you exploded in my face. Not delivered the damn mail."

[I have been controlling your emotions to keep you in line. I have postulated that you would have panicked and caused injury or discovery to the host body...]

The Xerys System shutdown as pure hot rage energy exploded in every cell of Rene Wilder's body. Pure rage at the Alien AI system that had not only taken control of his body but of the intruder that had kept him from contacting his family to find out if they had even survived.